► This dissertation examines the venerated status of certain practices in the history of American environmentalism, particularly wilderness walking, traditional farming, and the scientific field work…
(more)

▼ This dissertation examines the venerated status of certain practices in the history of American environmentalism, particularly wilderness walking, traditional farming, and the scientific field work of naturalists. These practices, which, following Foucault, I call “environmental techniques of the self,” are held up as ways of enacting, restoring, or cultivating a rightful relationship to the natural world. Specifically, I examine Henry David Thoreau on walking, Wendell Berry on work, Martin Heidegger on “dwelling,” and Aldo Leopold on ecological field work. Through critical engagements with these authors I show how environmental techniques of the self enact ecological subjectivities with reference to various figurations of perceptual truth, and how in this way they perform “nature” as a normative and critical concept. However, I suggest that these traditional ecological practices are ill suited to a world that no longer seems holistically natural. Seeking an
alternative modality of ecological practice I explore an under-acknowledged affinity between environmental philosophy and the practice of tinkering.
Advisors/Committee Members: Mao, Douglas (advisor).

► This thesis operationalizes a politicalecology research programme to examine the different dimensions of environmentally-oriented small-scale gold mining reform within Guyana's unique mining setting. The…
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▼ This thesis operationalizes a politicalecology research programme to examine the different dimensions of environmentally-oriented small-scale gold mining reform within Guyana's unique mining setting. The study is based on a year of fieldwork in Guyana and employs a mix of spatial, quantitative, and qualitative data - including multiple Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps, mineral property data, hundreds of secondary documents, three ethnographic site-based case studies, and 143 semi-structured interviews. The research approach examines the small-scale reform agenda in Guyana as a 'storyline', enabling a view of the policy agenda as not only embodying structures and institutions, but as also predicated on particular assumptions about social and ecological reality. By highlighting the contrasts between the ways policies are perceived and experienced by a range of actors on the ground with the abstract policy framings, it offers an analysis of the root causes of policy failure, conflict, and economic and social injustice. The thesis identifies a range of powerful (and under-acknowledged) political phenomena in the mining landscape that threaten the legibility, legitimacy, and effectiveness of the reform approach. These phenomena relate to contested local understandings of environmental change; unresolved contentions among poorer miners and indigenous groups over the structural basis of formal titles; emerging forms of market-mediated exclusion; and inherent 'informality' amidst intense resource competition, state fragility and remote geographies. The persistence of such phenomena offers a reminder that mining reform is not merely a 'legal-institutional' process but an inherently 'political' one that entails contestation over how social and ecological relationships are defined and managed. While showing how a politicalecology approach enables engagement with a range of normative concerns, this thesis also makes specific contributions to current academic and policy debates on small-scale gold mining governance, offering new insights on patterns of informality, injustice, and exclusion.

This dissertation posits a feminist theory of access by examining how fisherfolk benefit from sardinella (yaboy) in Senegal. Once a byproduct of artisanal fisheries and…
(more)

▼

This dissertation posits a feminist theory of access by examining how fisherfolk benefit from sardinella (yaboy) in Senegal. Once a byproduct of artisanal fisheries and used as baitfish, today, sardinella is a nutritional staple and precious commodity in West Africa in both fresh and less perishable forms (i.e., keccax). This shift points to the historical importance of political ecologies as profoundly gendered processes that are co-produced with class and age in the studied setting of Joal-Fadiouth, an urbanizing town in the region known as La Petite Côte. I argue that an analysis of structure, technology and work are key to identifying when and how intersecting lines of social difference matter—and become strategic—in contestations over who is entitled to fish, and at what price. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, I analyze primary data from 125 semi-structured interviews, an in-depth survey of 93 boats owners and 5 focus groups, to triangulate original findings with internal government data sets and other secondary sources from the francophone literature that have been largely unavailable to anglophone audiences until now. This project responds to the relative lacuna in the literature on agrarian change by excavating and specifying a seascapes framework, to highlight points of potential synergy between often parallel conversations on the dynamics of land-based and sea-based systems of production.

► Since the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the fishing and hunting rights of the Mi'kmaq nation in 1985 and 1990, the government has failed to…
(more)

▼ Since the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the fishing and hunting rights of the Mi'kmaq nation in 1985 and 1990, the government has failed to accommodate these in appropriate and effective resource management frameworks. In
Unama'ki/Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the subsistence harvest of lobster and moose by Mi'kmaq has therefore caused cross-cultural conflict and ecological concerns. Since 2006, the Lobster Management Plan (Unama'kik Jakejue'ka'timk) and the Moose Management Plan are being developed under Mi'kmaq leadership to manage the Mi'kmaq harvest communally.
These innovative management initiatives will serve as case studies for this thesis to explore how Mi'kmaq negotiate the politicalecology of co-management in Nova Scotia and effectively assert Mi'kmaq rights to resource harvest and selfgovernance. Most notably, the management plans employ cultural principles of sustainability and pro-active approaches to cross-cultural communication. This research shows how Mi'kmaq communities have developed resource management capacities and frameworks that can also inspire the self-government aspirations of
other aboriginal nations in Canada. Mi'kmaq strategies and experience suggests that
aboriginal leadership and cultural principles are integral to the meaningful implementation of aboriginal resource rights.
Semi-structured interviews with Mi'kmaq and governmental resource managers illustrated diverse discourses of aboriginal resource rights, ecological knowledge and sustainability. Aiming to represent research insights appropriately,
this thesis follows the decolonization agenda of aboriginal methodologies and features reflective discussions of the author's positionality within the Mi'kmaq research community. This also allows for a review of how the author came to terms
with conflicting discourses and aboriginal ontologies of ecological knowledge, as
well as the requirements for decolonizing research.
Supporting reflective insights, a framework of anthropological politicalecology and poststructuralist arguments for ontological diversity explain the validity
of aboriginal perspectives on ecological knowledge and resource rights, which is the
premise of decolonization paradigms. A review of engaging with aboriginal culture
both in theory and practice concludes that the practical experience is essential for an
appreciation of aboriginal perspectives and thus integral to cross-cultural communication and co-management relationships.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hutchings, Jessica, Hipwell, Bill.

► After three decades of neoliberal policies, there are growing concerns in Chile about how nature is used and understood. These concerns are reflected in the…
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▼ After three decades of neoliberal policies, there are growing concerns in Chile about how nature is used and understood. These concerns are reflected in the relationship between humans and natural water bodies which has reconceptualised the use of and access to water, especially for rural communities. These reconceptualisations have been affected by the model of water rights and river basin governance adopted which have raised issues about social inequality. As a result, rural communities have argued for greater participation in decision-making on matters that affect their lives.
This thesis explores conflict that arose around the Punilla Dam Project on the Ñuble River, Biobío Region in Chile. The research employs a politicalecology perspective to explore the socio-environmental outcomes of water management in this case and in Chile more generally. The case illustrates how water is important for Chile as a tool for development, the role environmental institutions play, and the tensions between peasant communities, irrigators and hydroelectric interests, while placing these tensions in the context of wider economic and political structures. It is clear that water is key in Chile, hence an examination of the encounter between the model of development and nature is required. I argue that the outcomes of these encounters will increase social inequality and marginalisation, showing that a water project is not always good for all. The omission of these issues in places often rich both in biodiversity and socio-cultural heritage is a cause of concern for Chile and more globally.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bond, Sophie.

Leaman-Constanzo, C. (2013). Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile. (Masters Thesis). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/2971

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Leaman-Constanzo, Cristian. “Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile.” 2013. Masters Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/10063/2971.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Leaman-Constanzo, Cristian. “Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile.” 2013. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

Leaman-Constanzo C. Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2013. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/2971.

Council of Science Editors:

Leaman-Constanzo C. Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile. [Masters Thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2013. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/2971

Humboldt State University

6.
L'Annunziata, Elena de Monge.
Following the plant : the politicalecology of a Hmong community garden.

► Community gardens are one of the many kinds of urban agricultural green spaces that exist in the cities and suburbs across the United States. Current…
(more)

▼ Community gardens are one of the many kinds of urban agricultural green spaces that exist in the cities and suburbs across the United States. Current research credits them with producing a wide array of human and environmental. Especially touted are increased access to fresh produce and a reduction in food insecurity. This same research however, has tended to oversimplify the community garden, focusing for advocacy???s sake solely on key social and environmental benefits. While it can be generally agreed upon that community gardens do produce social and ecological benefits, there is little research that focuses on the complex cultural, class, gender, ethnic, and generational intersections that affect the articulation and experience of these benefits.
Situating the Henderson Community Garden in Eureka California, a predominantly Hmong garden, within the existing literature on community gardens, I will explore the unique ways in which this garden is constituted through these complex cultural, ethnic, gendered and class intersections. Without much differentiation or attention to these intersecting complexities, the universalizing ???community garden??? heading can invisibilize key symbolic differences, including the degree to which some gardens can institutionalize themselves; the plural articulations of benefits from aesthetic to cultural, and finally the varied extent to which some become conduits through which communities navigate toward more just and culturally appropriate urban food sheds.
Using a feminist politicalecology framework, with an explicitly intersectional feminist analysis, this research project seeks to explore the multiple, and often competing ways in which the community garden space is understood. In addition to being a rich ecological and cultural space, the Henderson Community Garden is also a uniquely gendered space. While politicalecology helps draw attention to the interconnectivity between the discursive, material, and ecological, using a feminist politicalecology framework helps highlight the intersectional gendered nature of the garden. The purpose and value of this research project is to force a rethinking of these gardens spaces as plural, complex, and tension-filled cultural spaces that fall under the otherwise universalizing ???community garden??? heading. This rethinking is an essential component to illuminating not only the plurality of practices engaged in, ways of knowing and tending the land therein, but also for illuminating how access to natural resources through the community garden are always socially, culturally and politically mediated.
Advisors/Committee Members: Baker, J. Mark.

L'Annunziata, E. d. M. (2010). Following the plant : the political ecology of a Hmong community garden. (Masters Thesis). Humboldt State University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2148/682

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

L'Annunziata, Elena de Monge. “Following the plant : the political ecology of a Hmong community garden.” 2010. Masters Thesis, Humboldt State University. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/2148/682.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

L'Annunziata, Elena de Monge. “Following the plant : the political ecology of a Hmong community garden.” 2010. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

L'Annunziata EdM. Following the plant : the political ecology of a Hmong community garden. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Humboldt State University; 2010. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2148/682.

Council of Science Editors:

L'Annunziata EdM. Following the plant : the political ecology of a Hmong community garden. [Masters Thesis]. Humboldt State University; 2010. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2148/682

► Environmental NGOs (eNGOs) have become increasingly important in addressing environment and development issues in China. The majority of Chinese eNGO research views eNGOs as contributing…
(more)

▼ Environmental NGOs (eNGOs) have become increasingly important in addressing environment and development issues in China. The majority of Chinese eNGO research views eNGOs as contributing to a democratic society and/or sustainable development. Some studies suggest that eNGOs in China are constrained by Chinese politics. This thesis aims to critically examine how eNGOs play their parts in China’s environmental and development issues, particularly in the context of rural resource use, which is central to livelihoods of rural populations. This research, adopting politicalecology as the conceptual framework, seeks to understand how interactions among Chinese eNGOs and other institutional actors, including donors, international NGOs, different levels of government, and local communities, influence rural landscapes in China, a country wherein eNGO practices are embedded in their relationships with these actors across scales.
The argument of this thesis is largely drawn from the case study of Green Watershed, a domestic eNGO, and its participatory resource management programme in Yunnan province. Three elements were employed in the methodology: discourse analysis, organisational ethnography and village ethnography. Discourse analysis was conducted to understand both the context within which Green Watershed operates and Green Watershed’s practices. The organisational ethnography and the village ethnographies of three villages in the organisation’s project area not only revealed interactions between the eNGO and other actors, but also the interactions within the eNGO itself.
The key argument of this thesis is that the influences of eNGO practices on China’s rural landscapes are not merely inherited from eNGOs’ international linkages or simply constrained by government policy. Instead, the influences are the outcomes of the interactions between various actors across scales, which arise due to power relations, different world views and different priorities and interests of the various actors. The interactions influence the ways which environment and development philosophies translate from international agendas into local practice through eNGO projects. Rural landscapes, in which social relations and human-nature relationships take place, are consequently shaped by these interactions. The interactions between the projects and the local communities are particularly crucial in translating the agendas into practice, because of the critical roles played by the individual agency of the local communities. Local communities do not simply accept the external agendas. They may selectively adopt, translate or even reject the external agendas and/or philosophies.
As community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has gradually become popular among eNGOs for addressing resource issues in rural China, this thesis has taken the CBNRM model as a focus in order to produce a deep understanding of eNGOs’ influence on the ground. Based on empirical findings from the village case studies, I suggest that limitations exist in participatory…

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Wang JZ. Translating environmental and development agendas: influences of environmental NGOs on rural landscapes in China
. [Thesis]. University of Sydney; 2014. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/12642

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► Peasant and rural society is a new focus of medieval Islamic archaeology in Jordan. New surveys and excavations conducted on geographically and historically distinct regions…
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▼ Peasant and rural society is a new focus of medieval Islamic archaeology in Jordan. New surveys and excavations conducted on geographically and historically distinct regions of Jordan consider state-level agricultural investment but are also interested in documenting rural life and land use in medieval Jordan. This new research is relevant to the discourse on medieval PoliticalEcology of Jordan because of its focus on state investment in intensive land use, including irrigation and diversion of local agricultural economies from subsistence crops to cash crops and the effects that state agriculture had on peasantry and the environment. Archaeology offers a deep-time perspective on these issues. In this dissertation, I use phytoliths to understand agricultural practices of Medieval Jerash, Hisban (Mediterranean vegetation zone), Shuqayra al-Gharbiyya, Tawahin as-Sukkar, Khirbet as-Sheikh Isa, and Beidha (semi-arid region of the Jordan Valley) to offer new insights into state agricultural policies in relation to ecological and environmental history. My results show that control of irrigable land by subsistence farmers gave them resilience and contributed to sustainable farming. However, state-managed agricultural systems expropriated irrigable land, emphasizing production of cash crops for state revenue, thus reducing sustainability and putting pressure on the landscape. Sugarcane production replaced cereal cultivation and led to wood fuel burning, which in turn resulted in landscape erosion. Phytoliths from Beidha indicate that intensive agricultural production extended to marginal areas with the use of irrigation, thus creating greater human impact on sensitive environments.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rosen, Arlene Miller (advisor), Ali, Kamran (committee member), Rodriguez-Alegria, Enrique (committee member), Walker, Bethany (committee member).

► This research used tuberculosis (TB) as a lens to elucidate how migration, settlement, local agency and support networks influence migrants??? health in New Zealand. The…
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▼ This research used tuberculosis (TB) as a lens to elucidate how migration, settlement, local agency and support networks influence migrants??? health in New Zealand. The study also examined specific characteristics of TB such as delays in diagnosis and the stigma attached to the disease to gain a broader understanding of TB experience for migrants in New Zealand. The research addressed these aims through the analytical framework of politicalecology and incorporation of interviews, participant observation and media analysis. Participants in the research included immigrants from Mainland China, South Korea, and India, and New Zealand health care professionals.
The study found that immigration policies, social discrimination and isolation have created structural inequalities between dominant host populations and Asian migrants in New Zealand. These inequalities compounded settlement problems such as language difficulties and limited employment opportunities, resulting in low income levels and perceived stress for Indian, Korean and Chinese people, which has affected their health and well being.
Transnational policies and experiences of health care systems in immigrants??? countries of origin and in New Zealand strongly influenced health seeking behaviour of migrants, along with structural barriers such as lack of Asian health care professionals and interpreting services. Local cultural and biological factors including health cultures and physical symptoms also affected these practices. In relation to TB, structural processes along with clinic doctor-patient relationships and social stigmas created barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Factors that facilitated access to health care in general, and TB diagnosis and treatment in particular, included the use of support networks, particularly local General Practitioners from countries of origin, and Public Health Nurses, along with flexible TB treatment programmes.
This study shows that the incidence and experience of TB is shaped by migration and settlement processes. It also builds upon other medical anthropological studies that have employed politicalecology by demonstrating its usefulness in application to developed as well as developing countries. In addition, the study contributes to the growing area of Asian migration research in New Zealand, illustrating that migration and settlement processes are complex and need to be understood as multidimensional, thus demonstrating advantages in approaching them from a political ecological framework.
Advisors/Committee Members: Dr Judith Littleton, Associate Professor Julie Park.

Anderson, A. (2008). Migration and settlement in Indian, Korean and Chinese immigrant communities in Auckland: a perspective from the political ecology of health. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Auckland. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2416

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Anderson, Anneka. “Migration and settlement in Indian, Korean and Chinese immigrant communities in Auckland: a perspective from the political ecology of health.” 2008. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Auckland. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2416.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Anderson, Anneka. “Migration and settlement in Indian, Korean and Chinese immigrant communities in Auckland: a perspective from the political ecology of health.” 2008. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

Anderson A. Migration and settlement in Indian, Korean and Chinese immigrant communities in Auckland: a perspective from the political ecology of health. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Auckland; 2008. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2416.

Council of Science Editors:

Anderson A. Migration and settlement in Indian, Korean and Chinese immigrant communities in Auckland: a perspective from the political ecology of health. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Auckland; 2008. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2416

University of Connecticut

11.
McPherson, Tsitsi Yetunde.
Issues of species distribution modeling, sovereign State boundaries and Indigenous Peoples' rights as they relate to conservation efforts in Guyana, South America.

► The conservation of biological diversity has tended to focus on protecting flora and fauna, however, underlying issues that may complicate conservation efforts need to…
(more)

▼ The conservation of biological diversity has tended to focus on protecting flora and fauna, however, underlying issues that may complicate conservation efforts need to be considered. The interrelatedness of biodiversity conservation, State boundary conflicts, and Indigenous Peoples' rights are evaluated in this dissertation for the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Chapter 1 provides background information on the Guiana Shield and for the chapters of the dissertation. Chapter 2 assesses the regional distribution of seven taxon-groups: invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, ferns and non-seed plants, and seed plants using herbarium and museum specimen data. Proposed conservation sites were compared with indigenous (Amerindian) and <i> non</i>-indigenous settlements, lands under administration of Guyana's milling and forestry authorities, and the potential sprawl of human activity associated with <i>non</i>-indigenous settlements. Human features on the landscape suggest significant conflict between proposed conservation areas and lands titled and/or demarcated to Amerindians and lands under administration of mining and forestry officials. In light of these conflicts, I propose conservation areas that take into account some of these conflicts and may also be incorporated into transboundary conservation initiatives. Chapter 3 evaluates the boundary conflicts between Venezuela/Guyana and Guyana/Suriname with an aim to facilitating a proposed transboundary conservation initiative, which I term the Guiana Shield Ecoregion Reserve (GSER). The public goods concept is applied to ecology wherein providing goods at the global level, and related national and local levels, is paid for by international organizations in exchange for sustainable protection of ecosystems. Chapter 4 discusses Amerindian rights, examining (i) the 1965 British Guiana Independence Conference, (ii) the United Nations Decolonization Committee Declaration, (iii) the United Nations Charter, and (iv) the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, and their implied conditionalities on Guyana's independence. Modification of Guyana legislation associated with lands, fundamental rights, and culture of Amerindians are proposed. Urgently addressing Amerindian rights relative to Guyana's green development initiative, the Low Carbon Development Strategy, is also discussed. Chapter 5 concludes by proposing future research directions for each chapter.

McPherson, T. Y. (2012). Issues of species distribution modeling, sovereign State boundaries and Indigenous Peoples' rights as they relate to conservation efforts in Guyana, South America. (Thesis). University of Connecticut. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3492169

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

McPherson, Tsitsi Yetunde. “Issues of species distribution modeling, sovereign State boundaries and Indigenous Peoples' rights as they relate to conservation efforts in Guyana, South America.” 2012. Thesis, University of Connecticut. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3492169.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

McPherson, Tsitsi Yetunde. “Issues of species distribution modeling, sovereign State boundaries and Indigenous Peoples' rights as they relate to conservation efforts in Guyana, South America.” 2012. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

McPherson TY. Issues of species distribution modeling, sovereign State boundaries and Indigenous Peoples' rights as they relate to conservation efforts in Guyana, South America. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Connecticut; 2012. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3492169.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

McPherson TY. Issues of species distribution modeling, sovereign State boundaries and Indigenous Peoples' rights as they relate to conservation efforts in Guyana, South America. [Thesis]. University of Connecticut; 2012. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3492169

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of Georgia

12.
Kohl, Ellen Anna.
Working the waters: the political ecologies of scale and Georgia's "100-year" drought, 2007-2008.

► Throughout Georgia’s 100-year drought, politicians had to balanced decreased water supply, due to lack of rain, with increased demand, due to dramatic population growth, to…
(more)

▼ Throughout Georgia’s 100-year drought, politicians had to balanced decreased water supply, due to lack of
rain, with increased demand, due to dramatic population growth, to meet the water needs of their communities.
In Georgia, water is managed on multiple scales. The scalar interactions between state, regional and local
governments challenged local governments, as they attempted to comply with multiple guidelines and meet the
needs of their community. Stakeholders recognized the multi-scalar management of water during times of
drought. This impacted their construction of drought and it also influenced the way they interacted with
governmental officials as they attempted to change water management during drought. Through a case of
study of one stakeholder group in Athens, GA, I address how the members of the green industry recognized the
interactions between state, regional, and local governments in the development and implementation of drought
management policies, and how this influenced how they worked within the scalar political framework to
protect the interests of their industry. I further examine how individuals’ construction of drought influences
their understanding of who had the power to manage water during times of drought.
Advisors/Committee Members: Nikolas Heynen.

Kohl, E. A. (2009). Working the waters: the political ecologies of scale and Georgia's "100-year" drought, 2007-2008. (Masters Thesis). University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/kohl_ellen_a_200905_ma

Kohl EA. Working the waters: the political ecologies of scale and Georgia's "100-year" drought, 2007-2008. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. University of Georgia; 2009. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/kohl_ellen_a_200905_ma.

Council of Science Editors:

Kohl EA. Working the waters: the political ecologies of scale and Georgia's "100-year" drought, 2007-2008. [Masters Thesis]. University of Georgia; 2009. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/kohl_ellen_a_200905_ma

University of Georgia

13.
Witter, Rebecca.
Taking their territory with them when they go: mobility and access in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park.

► The Makandezulu region of Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park is Maluleke territory. That is, the population of Makandezulu, which is dominated by the Maluleke xibongo or…
(more)

▼ The Makandezulu region of Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park is Maluleke territory. That is, the population of Makandezulu, which is dominated by the Maluleke xibongo or clan name has control over environmental resources here and, more importantly, people's relationships with respect to them. With the establishment of Mozambique's Limpopo National Park in 2001, however, the Makandezulu region has also become national and transfrontier conservation territory. Following park implementation and having concluded that resident aspirations for the park were not compatible with conservation goals, conservation managers with support from international donors are developing an extensive resettlement program for people residing along the Shingwedzi Watershed including the Makandezulu region.
This dissertation assesses the history of resident mobility among Makandezulu residents, how residents established access to and control of resources both within this region and when they moved, and the relevance of this relationship between access and mobility in the context of conservation related resettlement. My examination of the politicalecology of access and mobility in Makandezulu illustrates significant changes in Maluleke territory over the last two centuries which are grounded in three broad arguments. First, for Makandezulu residents, mobility was a means to avoiding the displacement context of external or non-Maluleke groups. Second, both within the Makandezulu region and when residents moved, residents established access to resources through a variety of mechanisms; however, there was an important difference between establishing access and control. Third, the establishment or loss of group level resource control was synonymous with the establishment or loss of territory.
Advisors/Committee Members: J. Peter Brosius.

Witter, R. (2010). Taking their territory with them when they go: mobility and access in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/witter_rebecca_201005_phd

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Witter, Rebecca. “Taking their territory with them when they go: mobility and access in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park.” 2010. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/witter_rebecca_201005_phd.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Witter, Rebecca. “Taking their territory with them when they go: mobility and access in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park.” 2010. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

Witter R. Taking their territory with them when they go: mobility and access in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2010. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/witter_rebecca_201005_phd.

Council of Science Editors:

Witter R. Taking their territory with them when they go: mobility and access in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2010. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/witter_rebecca_201005_phd

Texas A&M University

14.
Hunt, Carter A."We Are Even Poorer, But There Is More Work" An Ethnographic Analysis of Ecotourism in Nicaragua.

► This research examines ecotourism outcomes in the context of large-scale tourism development in Nicaragua and focuses on Morgan's Rock Hacienda and Ecolodge. Since ecotourism involves…
(more)

▼ This research examines ecotourism outcomes in the context of large-scale tourism development in Nicaragua and focuses on Morgan's Rock Hacienda and Ecolodge. Since ecotourism involves the imposition of Western constructs of nature, biodiversity, communities and conservation, our attempts to evaluate or certify ecotourism are likewise derived from these constructs. Failing to recognize the context where ecotourism occurs may lead to evaluations that place excessive emphasis on poor performance while overlooking relative successes. Initial evaluations of this ecotourism project revealed deception, exploitation, and minimal dedication to ecotourism principles; however, continuing participant observation and ethnographic interviewing among employees and residents forced re-evaluation. In relation to unchecked tourism development in the region, and given the desperate Nicaraguan socio-economic reality for most rural residents, the project must be considered a moderate success.
This dissertation later invokes the dominant literature on local reactions to tourism development coming out of the field of tourism studies that uses stage-based models to show that increasing experience with tourism leads to increasingly negative reactions to tourism. This is contrasted with ecotourism research that has shown how increasing participation in ecotourism leads to more favorable attitudes towards ecotourism projects. This dissertation examines these two seemingly disparate perspectives in the context of an ecotourism project. Three groups representing different levels of involvement with ecotourism are compared. The results support traditional tourism theory, suggesting fruitful opportunities for integration of research on conventional forms of tourism with research specific to ecotourism.
Finally, a politicalecology approach is adopted to reveal mutually reinforcing cycles of capital accumulation and impoverishment leading to environmental degradation in the region resulting from tourism development in the region, as originally described in the influential book Social Causes of Environmental Destruction in Latin America. While that work focuses primarily on agricultural activities, here recent ethnographic research on ecotourism in southwestern Nicaragua is contextualized within rapid tourism development in the region and examined through a political ecological lens to reveal how tourism is responsible for the same destructive cycles revealed above. Despite achieving certain on-site success, even ecotourism contributes to, if not enables, larger processes of environmental exploitation in the Nicaraguan context.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stronza, Amanda (advisor), Werner, Cynthia (committee member), Shafer, Scott (committee member), Lacher, Thomas (committee member).

Hunt, C. A. (2010). "We Are Even Poorer, But There Is More Work" An Ethnographic Analysis of Ecotourism in Nicaragua. (Thesis). Texas A&M University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-862

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Hunt, Carter A. “"We Are Even Poorer, But There Is More Work" An Ethnographic Analysis of Ecotourism in Nicaragua.” 2010. Thesis, Texas A&M University. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-862.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Hunt, Carter A. “"We Are Even Poorer, But There Is More Work" An Ethnographic Analysis of Ecotourism in Nicaragua.” 2010. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

Hunt CA. "We Are Even Poorer, But There Is More Work" An Ethnographic Analysis of Ecotourism in Nicaragua. [Internet] [Thesis]. Texas A&M University; 2010. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-862.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Hunt CA. "We Are Even Poorer, But There Is More Work" An Ethnographic Analysis of Ecotourism in Nicaragua. [Thesis]. Texas A&M University; 2010. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-862

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of Exeter

15.
Bangura, Ahmed Ojullah.
The politicalecology of sustainable community development in Sierra Leone.

► Natural resources are in abundance but have not benefited resourcebased communities. The mining industry, especially in developing countries, has fallen short of working towards sustainable…
(more)

▼ Natural resources are in abundance but have not benefited resourcebased communities. The mining industry, especially in developing countries, has fallen short of working towards sustainable community practices. Different governance initiatives adopted by governments to make the communities beneficiaries of these resources are yet to bring sustainable results. Government is seen as the sole actor on policymaking and its implementation, and the production and delivery of goods and services. Acknowledgement is not given to the roles and responsibilities of the resource-based communities to work as co-partners towards sustainable community development. Hence, this thesis argues that government policies should move away from seeing resource communities as recipients and representatives in policymaking towards co-partnership. As such, this thesis aims to explore the dynamics between resource use and achieving sustainable community development by exploring the barriers and potential for sustainable community development in diamond mining communities in Kono, Eastern Sierra Leone. To do this, the thesis uses data from a wide rage of indebt semi-structured interviews, documents and focus group discussions from four case studies representing four chiefdoms to point out a shift from the governance approach of institutionalisation to adaptive governance approach that will make the resource communities self-determined and sustainable. The thesis deals with three objectives. First, a focus is put on the relationship between resource exploitation and community governance in mining communities through an analysis of key actors and their roles at a range of scales. Second, in an attempt to find out the scope of sustainability in resource-based communities, attention is given to the ways mining communities utilise their assets and undertake practices that contribute towards sustainable community development. Third, in finding answers from issues arising in these communities and the prospect for effective mining policies, the thesis attempts to identify both the structural and community-based barriers to promoting sustainable community development in mining communities and then make policy recommendations for community development in such communities. Key Words: Resource Exploitation; Community Development, Community Governance, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Community Development

Bangura, A. O. (2013). The political ecology of sustainable community development in Sierra Leone. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Exeter. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10871/13343

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Bangura, Ahmed Ojullah. “The political ecology of sustainable community development in Sierra Leone.” 2013. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Exeter. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/10871/13343.

Bangura AO. The political ecology of sustainable community development in Sierra Leone. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Exeter; 2013. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/13343.

Council of Science Editors:

Bangura AO. The political ecology of sustainable community development in Sierra Leone. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Exeter; 2013. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/13343

University of Kansas

16.
Kotlinski, Nicholas.
A PoliticalEcology of Oil Palm in the Peruvian Amazon.

► Peru’s Amazon region is one of the newest fronts in a growing national and international interest in oil palm production. State legislation and market incentives…
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▼ Peru’s Amazon region is one of the newest fronts in a growing national and international interest in oil palm production. State legislation and market incentives have accelerated the growth of the industry by promoting large-scale investment and land acquisition. Based on an examination of the opposing discourses of available environmentalist and developmentalist videos and texts, I trace environmental conflict created by the establishment of a large-scale plantation in the Caynarachi-Shanusi Valley, on the San Martin-Loreto border. In addition, while area farmers make up a small fraction of land converted to oil palm, they represent a significant force in the future of oil palm development in the Peruvian Amazon, as the supposed benefactors of development, but also as keepers of diverse cropping systems and forest resources. As such, environmentalist and developmentalist discourses either over-simplify, or ignore smallholder oil palm development. Using ethnographic methods, this study examines the social and environmental perceptions of smallholders, community members, and activists in the region regarding the legacy of oil palm plantation establishment, and the changing economic, social and ecological realities of smallholders, both internal and external to the oil palm economy.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Christopher (advisor), Egbert, Stephen (cmtemember), Dean, Bartholomew (cmtemember).

► Southeastern Ohio, officially designated a part of Appalachia, was heavily dependent on coal mining from the mid-1800s until the 1970s. But despite the region’s history…
(more)

▼ Southeastern Ohio, officially designated a part of
Appalachia, was heavily dependent on coal mining from the mid-1800s
until the 1970s. But despite the region’s history of resource
extraction, its forest has largely returned. Interestingly, almost
all of this reforestation occurred on private land owned by
thousands of individuals. These private forest owners are often
viewed as inadequate stewards of the land, and interest groups are
constantly pushing governance strategies that would remake the
forest to suit their own agendas. Thus, a struggle over this
newly-mature forest, its resources, and its future has begun. Here
I attempt first to show how local forests owners are actually
knowledgeable, active, economically-savvy, and organized scientists
navigating a complicated, power-laden space filled with stereotypes
and competing interests. Second, I discuss the connections between
soils, trees, nutrients, animals, interest groups, landowners, and
economies on this landscape and argue that ecological and human
processes are knotted too tightly together to ever be untangled.
Finally, through linking human and non-human processes, I explore
the possibilities of how southeast Ohio's forests could look years
from now. Many of these possibilities are so drastically dissimilar
from both each other and today's forest that they would certainly
have significant repercussions on local landscapes, ecosystems, and
livelihoods.
Advisors/Committee Members: McSweeney, Kendra (Advisor).

Law, J. (2010). Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the
Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio. (Masters Thesis). The Ohio State University. Retrieved from http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406

Law J. Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the
Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. The Ohio State University; 2010. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406.

Council of Science Editors:

Law J. Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the
Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio. [Masters Thesis]. The Ohio State University; 2010. Available from: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406

► Slum communities located along the borders of the Mae Kha canal in Chiang Mai are exposed to city wastewater flowing along their houses. Lacking capacity…
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▼ Slum communities located along the borders of the Mae Kha canal in Chiang Mai are exposed to city wastewater flowing along their houses. Lacking capacity among the local municipality to adequately protect the urban poor against socio-environmental problems appears to have a power-laden dimension. By implementing a politicalecology framework, this study has aimed to expose the underlying power structures that shape the current governance of the canal. It has become clear that in different ways, the current means for wastewater disposal supress the basic human rights of the urban poor in Chiang Mai. Pollution, floods and droughts in the canal are influenced by political processes and put the communities at risk. The case of Chiang Mai does not appear to form an exception. With increasing urbanization in developing countries, local governments are challenged with the management of socio-environmental issues in their rapidly expanding cities. Herein protection for the urban poor is urgently required, since their closely built settlements, often located in unsafe environments puts this group in a particularly vulnerable position.
Advisors/Committee Members: Leung, W.H.M..

► School Garden and Cooking Programs (SGCPs) are alternative food initiatives that seek to encourage healthy eating habits among children by offering hands-on, sensory based experiences…
(more)

▼ School Garden and Cooking Programs (SGCPs) are
alternative food initiatives that seek to encourage healthy eating
habits among children by offering hands-on, sensory based
experiences in garden and kitchen ‘classrooms.’ SGCPs have recently
gained notoriety and momentum within North America under the
converging contexts of ecological sustainability and human health
concerns. My dissertation explores this growing trend of healthy,
alternative food in schools by way of two North American SGCP case
studies: a public middle school in Berkeley, California, and a
public K-6 school in a rural community in Nova Scotia. My
dissertation involved three months of in-depth, qualitative
research at each case study location, including interviews with
teachers, parents, and leaders of the SGCPs, as well as focus
groups and in-class activities with students, and many hours of
participant observation in the kitchen and garden classrooms.
Drawing on academic scholarship within the fields of human-nature
geography and feminist theory, my dissertation explores and
discusses SGCPs by way of three central axes of analysis: the
production of knowledge, the structure of power/hierarchy, and the
un-structured ontology of lived experience/social practice. This
analysis suggests that SGCPs, and the alternative food movement at
large, would benefit from developing practices that are more
attentive to social difference and visceral
experience.

Hayes-Conroy, J. S. (2009). Visceral Reactions: Alternative Food and Social Difference
in Two North American Schools. (Doctoral Dissertation). Penn State University. Retrieved from https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/9910

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Hayes-Conroy, Jessica Suzanne. “Visceral Reactions: Alternative Food and Social Difference
in Two North American Schools.” 2009. Doctoral Dissertation, Penn State University. Accessed September 15, 2019.
https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/9910.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Hayes-Conroy, Jessica Suzanne. “Visceral Reactions: Alternative Food and Social Difference
in Two North American Schools.” 2009. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Hayes-Conroy JS. Visceral Reactions: Alternative Food and Social Difference
in Two North American Schools. [Doctoral Dissertation]. Penn State University; 2009. Available from: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/9910

► Though an analysis of the Ex-Mega Rice Project site—a one million hectare degraded tropical peat swamp in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province on the island of…
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▼ Though an analysis of the Ex-Mega Rice Project site—a one million hectare degraded tropical peat swamp in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo—this dissertation asks how and why degraded tropical landscapes become valuable. Some of political ecology’s foundational questions address discourses, agents, and institutions that contribute to and enable environmental resource degradation. This dissertation proceeds with degradation as its starting point to explore how this site has enabled certain actors to claim value from degradation while reducing value for others. Using qualitative methods, this research analyzes conjunctures of development, science, and value in and through this degraded landscape. I begin with an historical account of how the Mega Rice Project was planned and executed, despite warnings from scientists that it would be an ecological disaster. I then explore the seemingly paradoxical economic, cultural-scientific, and political values of degraded tropical landscapes, and of wastelands generally, within global discourses of planetary climate change. In a departure from traditional conservation research in the natural and social sciences, I also broaden notions of what value and values are inscribed on and in landscapes without high biodiversity, agricultural fertility, and/or aren’t obviously economically profitable. As the Indonesian state and transnational capital seeks to re-develop land classified as degraded, questions of how degraded environments might be refashioned are very much in play. Furthermore, Central Kalimantan—and the EMRP site in particular—has been the place of generative scientific knowledge about tropical peat soils as a global carbon threat since the late 1990s. I thus draw conceptually and methodologically from science and technology studies investigate how and why this scientific trajectory was located here and what implications that holds for future capital accumulation and livelihood strategies in this and similar sites.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of Manchester

21.
Hope, Jessica Chloe.
The Road to where? A PoliticalEcology of
Post-Neoliberalism: negotiations of extractive-led development,
indigeneity and conservation in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous
Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), Bolivia.

► This thesis is concerned with the demands that humans are placing on the planet. Such demands are interrogated in long-running debates about how to reconcile…
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▼ This thesis is concerned with the demands that
humans are placing on the planet. Such demands are interrogated in
long-running debates about how to reconcile the tensions between
development, as an immanent process of capitalist expansion (see
Cowen & Shelton 1996), and the environment, taken broadly in
reference to finite natural resources, landscapes and wildlife. As
environmental issues become increasingly prominent in local
struggles, national debates, and international policies and
programmes, we need to be paying more attention to how they are
produced and shaped by politics and power relations, as well as to
the differences between how groups relate to their biophysical
environments. In this thesis, I do this by investigating the
politicalecology of post-neoliberalism in Bolivia. The country has
been heralded as one of the most radical political projects in
Latin America and a reformed state is being implemented in the name
of radical politics and revolution, appropriating discourses of
indigeneity and social movements. Here, the state has blamed the
global environmental crisis on the continuing dominance of
capitalism and neoliberalism. This has been publically rejected by
the state, whilst new ‘post-neoliberal’ forms of development and
harmonious relationships between people and nature have been
promoted. However, Bolivia’s post-neoliberal state project has
become increasingly dependent on hydrocarbon extraction becoming
the most natural resource-dependent country in the region. This has
created new sites of contestation and conflict between citizens and
the state, as well as complicating what the Bolivian case
contributes to wider debates about development and the environment.
In this project I research an ongoing conflict over the Isiboro
Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS)
concentrating on the key themes of development, environment and
indigeneity. This politicalecology of post-neoliberalism
contributes both to our understanding of this emerging political
project and to broader debates about human/nature relationships -
by questioning the dynamics of fringe politics. This means
questioning how the terms and content of ‘alternatives’ and
‘radical’ politics are set and how this in turn shapes the
possibilities for transformative paths towards more sustainable
human/nature relationships.
Advisors/Committee Members: BROCKINGTON, DANIEL D, Brockington, Daniel, Bastia, Tanja.

Hope, J. C. (2015). The Road to where? A Political Ecology of
Post-Neoliberalism: negotiations of extractive-led development,
indigeneity and conservation in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous
Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), Bolivia. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Manchester. Retrieved from http://www.manchester.ac.uk/escholar/uk-ac-man-scw:276965

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Hope, Jessica Chloe. “The Road to where? A Political Ecology of
Post-Neoliberalism: negotiations of extractive-led development,
indigeneity and conservation in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous
Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), Bolivia.” 2015. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Manchester. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/escholar/uk-ac-man-scw:276965.

Hope JC. The Road to where? A Political Ecology of
Post-Neoliberalism: negotiations of extractive-led development,
indigeneity and conservation in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous
Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), Bolivia. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Manchester; 2015. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/escholar/uk-ac-man-scw:276965.

Council of Science Editors:

Hope JC. The Road to where? A Political Ecology of
Post-Neoliberalism: negotiations of extractive-led development,
indigeneity and conservation in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous
Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), Bolivia. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Manchester; 2015. Available from: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/escholar/uk-ac-man-scw:276965

► Native Americans are widely known as one of the most economically disadvantaged populations in the United States. Anglo-European imposed socioeconomic structures altering the landscape have…
(more)

▼ Native Americans are widely known as one of the most economically disadvantaged populations in the United States. Anglo-European imposed socioeconomic structures altering the landscape have interrupted the culturally specific behaviors associated with food security: access to food resources, the control of food production, its distribution, which has influenced how people go about preparing culturally specific foods today. In order to understand food security in this study area, it is essential to show how individuals have maintained access to food resources within the existent ethnohistorical literature. Second, to demonstrate the local perceptions about food through interviews conducted with tribal members who discuss commodities and their distribution, the ways people go about preparing these foods, and how individuals want to maintain access to healthy food in the future.

► Since the establishment of Pinochet’s dictatorship and its neoliberal experiment in 1973, Chile has experienced unprecedented growth in an increasingly resource-extractive economy, often through the…
(more)

▼ Since the establishment of Pinochet’s dictatorship and its neoliberal experiment in 1973, Chile has experienced unprecedented growth in an increasingly resource-extractive economy, often through the expropriation and exploitation of the traditional territories of peasant farmers and the Indigenous Mapuche people. Through a lens of resilience, this study explores how the political and economic landscape of the country shapes rural livelihoods in six communities across two regions, as well as its implications for resilience at the community level. At the same time, it seeks to uncover how rural peoples actively respond to these threats and foster resilience within their households and communities, with a particular focus on efforts to preserve traditional food practices and related struggles for autonomy over local resources and food systems. In looking at how producers strategically form alliances and engage in networks that often extend beyond their traditional local spaces, this thesis concludes that resilience strategies are more effective when they do not remain within community boundaries but are instead trans-scalar in nature. It argues that these network strategies are instrumental for producers in the defence of their territories and their sovereignty over rural food systems as well as in the collective assertion of their own ideals of development and food production in both national and global political spheres.

Ercolani, J. (2018). Situating Community Resilience within the Political Landscape: An Investigation of Rural Livelihoods and Agency in Chile's Bíobío and Araucanía Regions. (Thesis). Wilfrid Laurier University. Retrieved from https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2018

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Ercolani, Julia. “Situating Community Resilience within the Political Landscape: An Investigation of Rural Livelihoods and Agency in Chile's Bíobío and Araucanía Regions.” 2018. Thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University. Accessed September 15, 2019.
https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2018.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Ercolani, Julia. “Situating Community Resilience within the Political Landscape: An Investigation of Rural Livelihoods and Agency in Chile's Bíobío and Araucanía Regions.” 2018. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Ercolani J. Situating Community Resilience within the Political Landscape: An Investigation of Rural Livelihoods and Agency in Chile's Bíobío and Araucanía Regions. [Thesis]. Wilfrid Laurier University; 2018. Available from: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2018

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Oklahoma State University

24.
Tucker-Trainum, Teresa Kay.
Every Garden Tells a Story: Sustainable Development in a Newly Emergent Community Garden.

► Gardens, by their very nature, have the ability to speak to us about the role they play in the communities in which they are placed.…
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▼ Gardens, by their very nature, have the ability to speak to us about the role they play in the communities in which they are placed. Each story is unique and tied to the perspectives of those involved in the sowing, planting, and harvesting in each garden site. Community gardens shape the lives of the people who tend them as the people who tend them shape the life of the garden, and through the garden, the broader community. Thus, the interaction of people with the natural environment helps to create a garden's story. The central research questions addressed in this case study are: In what ways might newly emergent community gardens impact sustainability? What are economic, social, and/or environmental sustainability outcomes of a community garden within the first two-three years of existence? Finally, can a young community garden space become a catalyst for greater community involvement and the perpetuation of food security? For this research project I applied a case study approach, considering the case of Community of Hope Neighborhood Garden (COHNG), a newly emergent community garden in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Employing an inductive qualitative case study methodology, I utilized participant observation and semi-structured one-on-one and group audio-recorded interviews, exploring food security and sustainable development within the local space of the community garden through a politicalecology approach. Findings indicated that the relatively low capital costs of gardening, perceived lower personal food costs, and expanded access to organic plant food contributed to economic sustainability. The garden raised awareness of environmental issues and environmental constraints through organic gardening, habitat preservation and environmental conservation, contributing to environmental sustainability. Social sustainability outcomes included: life-enhancement, education, and promotion of collective efficacy, social capital, diversity, and inclusion. COHNG became a catalyst for greater community involvement and the perpetuation of food security through the integration of the "Tables to Go" food outreach and improved food access to gardeners and persons in recovery from addiction. The case study of COHNG affirmed that newly emergent community gardens have the potential ability to enhance sustainable development and become catalysts for greater community involvement and the perpetuation of food security.

Tucker-Trainum, T. K. (2012). Every Garden Tells a Story: Sustainable Development in a Newly Emergent Community Garden. (Thesis). Oklahoma State University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11244/9576

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► African agriculture has attracted increased global policy attention over the last 10 years due to concerns over both food security and economic growth. In this…
(more)

▼ African agriculture has attracted increased global policy attention over the last 10 years due to concerns over both food security and economic growth. In this context, social impact investing (SII)—where investors use financial models to achieve positive social impacts as well as financial returns—is presented as a viable means of financing agricultural development in the context of reduced public funding
This thesis is concerned with how SII (and its understandings, assumptions, and models of agricultural development) interact with smallholder farming in Tanzania. I unpack how the concept of SII takes shape, how it is translated into the Tanzanian context, and how it interacts with farmer livelihoods through a case study of Cheetah Development in Lower Kilolo District.
I take a politicalecology approach drawing mainly on qualitative methods. The concept of assemblages is employed to investigate how diverse actors enter into relationships, how those relationships hold together, and how they fall apart. I focus on three key analytical themes: power (discursive, disciplinary, and institutional), moral economies, and the role of socio-material entities.
My findings show that SII is being driven by the pursuit for new profit frontiers and concerns over business risks, and also by a belief that a more ethical capitalist economy can be built. This has resulted in a narrative of ‘Africa rising’. How exactly ‘social impact’ is being defined and the motivations for pursuing it, however, differ widely within SII.
To investigate how agricultural SII is translated in Tanzania I focus on Cheetah Development, an American social impact investor that provides agricultural inputs on credit to smallholder farmers and attempts to involve them in new maize value chains. Cheetah’s model identifies existing maize value chains centred around middlemen as features of an immoral capitalism. It also views smallholders as not only lacking market access and inputs, but also lacking in business-orientated mindsets. The Cheetah model builds various mechanisms to discipline farmers and render them bankable.
Through examining farmer livelihoods, I find that farmers conduct diverse livelihood activities, and maize plays a variety of roles in village life. Farmer livelihoods are underpinned by a moral economy involving flexible relations of borrowing and lending. I conclude that assumptions of ethical capitalism embedded in the Cheetah model clash with farmer livelihoods and their conceptions of just socio-economic relationships.

Watts, N. A. (2018). Investing for Impact: Finance and Farming in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania
. (Thesis). University of Cambridge. Retrieved from https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/271887

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Watts, Natasha Alice. “Investing for Impact: Finance and Farming in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania
.” 2018. Thesis, University of Cambridge. Accessed September 15, 2019.
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/271887.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► This dissertation examines the production of scale as a strategy used to capture political and economic benefits deriving from an ecotourism development project in South…
(more)

▼ This dissertation examines the production of scale as a strategy used to capture political and economic benefits deriving from an ecotourism development project in South Korea. It contributes to understanding how struggles over controlling “nature” deepen the marginalization of those who derive their livelihoods from the land by answering the following questions: 1) How do states deploy scale in creating a new scale of capital accumulation through struggles with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) over controlling an ecotourism project? 2) How do historical relationships determine the processes and outcomes of the coproduction of scale and nature? 3) How do the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, the Jeju Olle Foundation, Jeju people, and tourists struggle over ownership of landscape? In answering these questions, I also answer an overarching question: What does the context of South Korea as a Newly Industrialized Country mean for the outcomes of these struggles?
Evidence from ethnographic fieldwork suggests that NGO ecotourism interventions begin a process of “accumulation by dispossession” that the decentralized developmental state subsequently seeks to control. Because tourists are the source of state and/or NGO political economic power, their needs overtake the economic needs of residents. Local residents find themselves entangled in both state and NGO power struggles while simultaneously attempting to maintain agricultural livelihoods and close kinship relations disrupted by the establishment of the ecotourism project. The outcome of these struggles is the opening of new channels for capital accumulation for outsiders, leaving proclaimed beneficiaries of the ecotourism project on the political economic margins, as they have been throughout South Korea’s history.
The dissertation contributes to scale theory literature by demonstrating the process through which states reinforce authority on people and land by actively deploying scale while decentralizing. It also contributes to politicalecology studies that draw on the simultaneous production of nature and scale by showing how an ecotourism project (1) depoliticizes state support of middle-class capital accumulation through ecotourism and (2) deepens historical uneven development among regions in South Korea. Lastly, the dissertation fills a gap in politicalecology studies by examining the political ecological impacts in places where the use value of landscape shifts rapidly from livelihoods to aesthetics due to in-country economic growth. By doing so, the study speaks to debates on the false dichotomy of First and Third World political ecologies. It introduces a new “newly industrialized country (NIC) political ecology” focused on this unique political economic context that generates particular struggles between state/non-state actor struggles over nature.
Advisors/Committee Members: O’Reilly, Kathleen (advisor), Brannstrom, Christian (committee member), Ewers, Michael (committee member), Jamal, Tazim (committee member).

► Interactions between neoliberalism and sustainability within urban landscapes can impact aspects of sustainable development. Employing urban politicalecology as a theoretical framework, qualitative research on…
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▼ Interactions between neoliberalism and sustainability within urban landscapes can impact aspects of sustainable development. Employing urban politicalecology as a theoretical framework, qualitative research on the West Don Lands uncovered the reality of sustainability in neoliberal governance. It was found that neoliberalism is more compatible with addressing environmental issues as this is a profitable venture due to its marketability. Social concerns with regard to social housing provision stand marginalized and diluted: affordable housing is the greatest extent into social sustainability that neoliberalism currently allows. Particularly as social housing is an escalating issue, this form of sustainability is not acceptable. Furthermore, sustainable development requires housing provision for even low income groups, and this cannot be addressed through affordable housing as it excludes the most vulnerable populations. This questions the sustainability of the research site, and lends to the conclusion of the inherent incompatibility of neoliberalism with some aspects of social sustainability.
Advisors/Committee Members: Young, Douglas G. (advisor).

The majority of Kenya’s wildlife exists outside the network of national parks and reserves, predominantly in private and community-owned lands. Although works must be acknowledged…
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The majority of Kenya’s wildlife exists outside the network of national parks and reserves, predominantly in private and community-owned lands. Although works must be acknowledged for having explored the community conservation approach, the body of research examining how Kenya’s wildlife conservation approach is being negotiated by local stakeholders and incorporated into local livelihood strategies is limited. Based on a case study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya, this study examines the motivations of local and non-local groups to pursue wildlife conservation. Viewed through a politicalecology lens, this paper analyzes how local people moderate the influence of external conservation values and interests. Findings suggest that local people adopt wildlife conservation projects to access better systems of rangeland management, pursue strategic linkages with external stakeholders and develop basic industries. I conclude that this process represents how Samburu pastoralists strategically embrace externally driven wildlife conservation efforts in self-defining ways.

Parkinson, C. (2012). The Political Ecology of Community Conservation in northern Kenya: A Case Study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy. (Masters Thesis). University of Toronto. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1807/33488

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Parkinson, Craig. “The Political Ecology of Community Conservation in northern Kenya: A Case Study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy.” 2012. Masters Thesis, University of Toronto. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/1807/33488.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Parkinson, Craig. “The Political Ecology of Community Conservation in northern Kenya: A Case Study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy.” 2012. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

Parkinson C. The Political Ecology of Community Conservation in northern Kenya: A Case Study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. University of Toronto; 2012. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/33488.

Council of Science Editors:

Parkinson C. The Political Ecology of Community Conservation in northern Kenya: A Case Study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy. [Masters Thesis]. University of Toronto; 2012. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/33488

► The Cook Islands Marine Park (CIMP) was claimed to be the largest Marine Protected Area in the world when it was declared in August 2012.…
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▼ The Cook Islands Marine Park (CIMP) was claimed to be the largest Marine Protected Area in the world when it was declared in August 2012. This event was part of a trend to develop Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas in the Pacific Islands region and beyond. By some estimates only a few LSMPAs account for most marine biodiversity protection globally. This dissertation represents the first ethnographic account of the development of an LSMPA at local, national, regional, and international scales. An analysis of ethnographic and documentary materials shows that the development of the CIMP is not best understood as a process in which clear goals were set and achieved within existing political and administrative institutions but rather occurred within the context of a politicalecology of vagueness, where vagueness is characterized by wandering, the same kind of wandering attributed to vagabonds, sailers, and even the ocean itself. A politicalecology of vagueness is analyzed in terms of a flexible conceptual network that approach the vague as a political and social resource. This conceptual framework includes Foucault’s heterotopia, Turners’ notions of liminality as a characteristic of communitas, Fischer’s use of deep play and ethical plateau, and Weber’s characterization of appeals to charismatic authority. An approach to vagueness is presented within a politicalecology framework in which ecological distribution conflicts are the result of interstitial social and political processes. It is argued that the the CIMP has become a viable political and ecological project because it was not precisely defined conceptually and because it was collectively imagined and worked upon within social, culture, and political “other” spaces that were interstitial to existing structures.
Advisors/Committee Members: Faubion, James D (advisor), Boyer, Dominic (committee member), Howe, A. Cymene (committee member), Ward, Kerry R. (committee member).

► In the last 15 years, Israel has built the largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants in the world. The plants satisfy increased demand from population…
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▼ In the last 15 years, Israel has built the largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants in the world. The plants satisfy increased demand from population and economic growth. Desalination, the removal of salts and other minerals from water in order to render it useful for drinking, irrigation, or industrial purposes, holds the promise of a reliable, high quality water source unaffected by changing climate or shifting geopolitics. Desalination appears to solve one of the world's most intractable problems: freshwater scarcity. This dissertation will use Israel as a test case to examine underlying theoretical and empirical challenges associated with implementing desalination, asking the question, “Does desalination accomplish all that it promises?”
The introductory chapter situates the Israeli case in the larger global trends toward water augmentation through desalination. Chapter two contextualizes the research in the existing literature of ecomodernism, wherein technology is marshaled to solve environmental issues, new “post-political” institutions manage resources, and consensus can facilitate win-win solutions. The chapter also addresses the contribution of science and technology studies, politicalecology, and political geography, each of which raises important questions to be addressed by the dissertation.
This dissertation then applies ecomodernism to the case of desalination in Israel, asking the following questions:
1. How did Israel become ecomodern? What changes in the water sector over the course of the country’s history brought it to its current status?
2. With the implementation of ecomodern ideals, has Israel accomplished its
environmental goals in the water sector?
3. How did political and institutional shifts enable ecomodern desalination to flourish in Israel?
To answer these questions, chapter three traces a synthetic history of Israeli water, examining how a sector driven by socialist and Zionist ideology, transitioned into an ecomodern one based on the principles of economic efficiency and rational decisionmaking. Chapter four considers how Israeli environmental non-governmental organizations came to support desalination on environmental grounds despite evidence questioning the efficacy of the “substitution effect,” or the ability for desalinated water to substitute for natural sources. Chapter five points to advent of a new institution, the Israeli Water Authority, and its approach to ensuring post-political consensus in the sector. The dissertation concludes with lessons that other nations might consider when considering a desalination strategy, including environmental and transparency safeguards.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bauer, Carl J (advisor), Wilder, Margaret (advisor), Banister, Jeffrey (committeemember).